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After a lot of thought, I've decided to take a break from blogging for the foreseeable future. With my little C creeping its way back into my life and possible long term treatment now, I need to take a couple of things off my plate for the time being, and the blog is going to be one of those things. As it is, it felt like it was becoming more of a chore than anything else. I need my reading time to be more enjoyable right now, more of the escape that I really need, and what I don't need is the little voice in the back of my head telling me how many reviews I'm behind and trying to come up with what I need to say about the book.

I simply want to read.

I'll more than likely occasionally post on here what I've been reading, and if there is something that really blows my mind, I'll probably have more to say about it and may write up a proper post, but for right now, things are going to be very quiet around here.

As always, happy reading!

2017 edit

I will continue to blog according to my health and ability, and connecting my posts thru Goodreads, so please be patient if things get quiet around here again this year.

2017 edit #2

I am happy to report that my bone marrow transplant was a success and that I'm feeling more like myself everyday. That said, I'm going to try to start blogging a little more frequently, but please bare with me as I still continue to recover.

Gotham by Gaslight is a unique retelling of the Batman origin. This book was actually the starting point for DC's later Elseworlds series due to it's popularity. The Elseworlds series took their characters and reset them in time periods or circumstances different from their established histories and told one shot stories around these new ideas. The other interesting bit about this new (old) Batman story is that it can be considered a Steampunk Batman tale, before Steampunk was as popular as it is today.

Gotham by Gaslight follows the basic idea of Bruce Wayne/Batman's origin, with Bruce Wayne's family being murdered in front of him as a young boy and him later in life going out into the world to recreate himself into a force of good against evil as Batman. The difference here, however, is that this all takes place in the 1890s and his first adversary is Jack the Ripper. (This isn't spoiling anything. You learn that Jack the Ripper is in this book on the very first page.)

The real star of this book is the art by Mike Mignola. Fans of his Hellboy series will appreciate is dark and shadowy graphic sense, which ultimately lends itself perfectly to this tale. I think anybody who is a fan of Batman, or of Steampunk and is at least familiar with the Batman mythos, will find this quick read enjoyable.

At this precise moment, I'm sitting in the Ann Arbor District Library, waiting to meet Scott Westerfeld, author of the Uglies series and the Leviathan trilogy. I can't promise, but I'll try to post updates as the evening goes on.

The "left-handed designer," Seymour Chwast has been putting his unparalleled take — and influence — on the world of illustration and design for the last half century. In his version of Dante's Divine Comedy, Chwast's first graphic novel, Dante and his guide Virgil don fedoras and wander through noir-ish realms of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, finding both the wicked and the wondrous on their way.

Dante Alighieri wrote his epic poem The Divine Comedy from 1308 to 1321 while in exile from his native Florence. In the work's three parts (Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise), Dante chronicles his travels through the afterlife, cataloging a multitude of sinners and saints—many of them real people to whom Dante tellingly assigned either horrible punishment or indescribable pleasure — and eventually meeting both God and Lucifer face-to-face.

In his adaptation of this skewering satire, Chwast creates a visual fantasia that fascinates on every page: From the multifarious torments of the Inferno to the host of delights in Paradise, his inventive illustrations capture the delirious complexity of this classic of the Western canon.

I'm not even going to waste much time on this review. I didn't really like the book. At all. The only reason I'm giving it 2 stars is that it may open up the possibility to someone to read Dante's actual The Divine Comedy because of the simplistic telling here. It may help someone who feels the story too daunting to understand a little better what's happening. Maybe.

It's the simplicity that detracts me from enjoying this volume. Chwast takes the epic poem and breaks it down into one line synopses and the crudest illustrations possible to retell the story. I see lots of praise for Chwast and his graphic sense, but honestly, I saw nothing in this book that impressed me at all. I thought the illustrations childish and not very easily understood in some cases.

Not recommended, especially if you have ever read the original and enjoyed it. In that case, avoid this at all cost.

Sharon Shinn's Twelve Houses books have fascinated readers and critics alike with their irresistible blend of fantasy, romance, and adventure. Now in Quatrain, she weaves compelling stories in four of the worlds that readers love in "Flight", "Blood," "Gold," and "Flame."

So, this past weekend I found I had some time to kill in a Borders in Chicago, so I decided to pick up Quatrain by Sharon Shinn and read the Samaria novella. Quatrain consists of four novellas, each taking place in one of Shinn's worlds. I am a hug fan of the Samaria series, so was anxious to read this particular tale, but I didn't want to have to purchase the whole book for this one story (honestly, I haven't read any other of Shinn's series, so the other stories in this particular volume didn't really interest me), so I grabbed it off the shelf and bought a coffee and found a comfy corner to settle myself into for an hour or two of reading.

The story in "Flight" deals directly with one of the previous Samaria books, but unfortunately it has been too long since I read any of the series for me to remember which book this story tied directly to. Needless to say, I still enjoyed the story as it thoroughly transported me back to the world of Samaria, a world populated by mortals and angels, overseen by the Jovah-appointed Archangel; a world filled with music and emotion.

Spoilerific Pause

This story deals with Salome who is trying to protect her niece from the Archangel Raphael, who has had a dark past with Salome. This is a quick tale, and one that allows the characters to have a nice resolution to the immediate story; Salome discovers that the unrequited love she has longed for most of her life actually returns her feelings, Raphael's excesses as Archangel may be exposed, and Salome's niece comes to her senses.

I don't know that this is a necessary read in the world of Samaria, but if you are looking for a nice return to Samaria, like me, because it's been too long of a break, this is a nice taste of that world.

Except to Harry Keogh, Necroscope. And what they tell him is horrifying.

In the Balkan mountains of Rumania, a terrible evil is growing. Long buried in hallowed ground, bound by earth and silver, the master vampire schemes and plots. Trapped in unlife, neither dead nor living, Thibor Ferenczy hungers for freedom and revenge.

The vampire's human tool is Boris Dragosani, part of a super-secret Soviet spy agency. Dragosani is an avid pupil, eager to plumb the depthless evil of the vampire's mind. Ferenczy teaches Dragosani the awful skills of the necromancer, gives him the ability to rip secrets from the mind and bodies of the dead.

Dragosani works not for Ferenczy's freedom but world domination. He will rule the world with knowledge raped from the dead.

His only opponent: Harry Koegh, champion of the dead and the living.

To protect Harry, the dead will do anything--even rise from their graves!

This is a re-re-read for me. I've read Necroscope a couple of times over now, and I always find it an immensely entertaining book. Lumley's details in the book are so fine, it's hard not to find yourself entirely immersed in the story. It's hard to imagine how much Lumley packs into this book: cold war confrontations between England and Russia; ESPionage involving psychics of varying levels; vampires; time travel; teleportation; zombies (of a sort); political intrigue; family secrets. Of course, you have to like horror novels as well, because Necroscope definitely is not for the faint-of-heart reader.

The plot of the book is your basic good vs evil, which eventually comes to a head with the confrontation between Harry Keogh, Necroscope, and Boris Dragosani, Necromancer. The differences between these two characters really creates the tension in the book. We follow the concurrent running stories of Harry Keogh growing up and Boris Dragosani as a young man, as they both come into their own with their powers. Dragosani, the necromancer, steals secrets from the dead by defiling their bodies in the most gruesome manner, while Harry Keogh, the necroscope, simply speaks to the dead, and befriends them. In Lumley's world, the dead simply carry on as a mind/conscious after death. The genius' of the world continue thinking their amazing thoughts, creating and composing and building, all in their mind but entirely alone. That is, until Harry comes along and discovers his ability to actually speak to the dead, and they are eternally grateful for this fact. So grateful, in fact, that they won't necessarily lay still in their graves when Harry's life is in danger.

As if Dragosani isn't dangerous enough, he also discovers (or is discovered by) Thibor Ferenczy, an ancient vampire, or wamphyr. In Lumley's world, the vampires are actually parasitic creatures who bond with humans and can reproduce once in their lifetime. Ferenczy teaches Dragosani the necromancer technique and eventually bestows on him the "gift" of becoming a wamphyri.

In all honesty, the book is a little slow to start off. There is so much back story to all the characters involved, that Lumley has to explain quite a bit before the story really begins to pick up, but once that happens, hold on! It's a roller coaster ride of a book, right up to the very last page. Lumley has created some very memorable characters in his cast, and his use of time travel and teleportation are extremely clever. I can't give details as that will be too spoilerific, but he does handle the time travel very well (after the fact, it has left me in mind of Tim Powers' use of time travel in The Anubis Gates). If you are a fan of action packed stories, and don't mind a little blood and gore on the way, Necroscope would definitely be for you. However, if you're a little bit on the squeamish side, I'd highly recommend avoiding Necroscope at all costs!

Friday, October 15, 2010

This week's lack in a Fragment Friday is brought to you by an Author Meet. Last night, I had the opportunity to meet Michael Sims, editor of Dracula's Guest: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories. What makes this anthology of vampire stories stand out from all the other vampire anthologies out there, you ask? Well, Michael Sims takes an interesting approach to the vampire as a whole, and actually presents a natural history of the vampire, presenting historical documents about suspected cases vampirism and accounts of how certain cultural influences also inspired certain elements of the vampire tale alongside the literary stories that he chose as what he saw as the best examples of the vampire in literature.

Now you're thinking that really doesn't sound all that interesting, aren't you? Well, you'd be wrong. Michael Sims is not only very intelligent, he is also extremely funny. The discussion ended up running almost 2 hours long, and a good time was had by all! If you ever discover that Michael Sims is coming around your area to discuss one of his books, I'd highly recommend going to see him.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The 2010 National Book Award finalists have been announced on the National Book Foundation website.

As usual, I'm embarrassed to reveal that I have not read a single book on this award list. I usually feel like an accomplished reader, and then I see a list like this, and think, "Huh. I really need to read more!" Perhaps one of these years, I'll sit down and try to read some the previous winners.

For more information on the National Book Award, visit the National Book Foundation website.

Everyone thinks they know the real story behind the villains in fairy tales—but the villains themselves beg to differ. In Troll’s-Eye View, you’ll hear from the Giant’s wife (“Jack and the Beanstalk”), Rumpelstiltskin, the oldest of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, and many more. A stellar lineup of authors, including Garth Nix, Jane Yolen, and Nancy Farmer, makes sure that these old stories do new tricks!

A collection of familiar fairy tales with an unusual twist: these stories are told from the point of view of the villains! As with any collection of short stories and poems, some are better than others, some stand out, some are less than stellar, but overall, it is a solid collection. The stories consist of:

"Wizard's Apprentice" by Delia Sherman

"An Unwelcome Guest" by Garth Nix

"Faery Tales" by Wendy Froud

"Rags and Riches" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

"Up the Down Beanstalk: A W Remembers" by Peter S. Beagle

"The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces" by Ellen Kushner

"Puss in Boots, the Sequel" by Joseph Stanton

"The Boy Who Cried Wolf" by Holly Black

"Troll" by Jane Yolen

"Castle Othello" by Nancy Farmer

"`Skin" by Michael Cadnum

"A Delicate Architecture" by Catherynne M. Valente

"Molly" by Midori Snyder

"Observing the Formalities" by Neil Gaiman

"The Cinderella Game" by Kelly Link

I could go into specifics with each story, but I think I'll pass on that. These are written by some of the finest fantasy authors around today, and even though I may not have enjoyed some of these tales as much as others in the collection, they are all still well written and worth reading. I will say, though, that my favorite was "A Delicate Architecture" by Catherynne M. Valente. This story, telling the history of the witch from Hansel & Gretel was so thought provoking and carried such a sense of melancholy that I couldn't help but understand why the witch became the way she is. It's a hauntingly beautiful story.

Halloween, 1963. They call him the October Boy, or Ol’ Hacksaw Face, or Sawtooth Jack. Whatever the name, everybody in this small Midwestern town knows who he is. How he rises from the cornfields every Halloween, a butcher knife in his hand, and makes his way toward town, where gangs of teenage boys eagerly await their chance to confront the legendary nightmare. Both the hunter and the hunted, the October Boy is the prize in an annual rite of life and death.

Pete McCormick knows that killing the October Boy is his one chance to escape a dead-end future in this one-horse town. He’s willing to risk everything, including his life, to be a winner for once. But before the night is over, Pete will look into the saw-toothed face of horror--and discover the terrifying true secret of the October Boy . . .

Winner of the Stoker Award and named one of the 100 Best Novels of 2006 by Publishers Weekly, Dark Harvest is a powerhouse thrill-ride with all the resonance of Shirley Jackson’s "The Lottery."

I had no idea who Norman Partridge was when I picked up Dark Harvest. It was the cover that caught my eye (as so happens with books!). That image of a Jack o' Lantern-headed scarecrow, eyes and mouth glowing with an inner fire, making his way through a cornfield completely caught my imagination and I had to know what this story was about.

Reading Norman Partridge's Dark Harvest was a pleasant surprise. Well, not a pleasant surprise, since a story about a living scarecrow who is trying to make his way to the small town church before midnight on Halloween, while all the boys in the town, who have been locked up for five days with no food, are set loose to try and kill him... well, that story really can't be all that pleasant, now can it? However, what surprised me so much was how strongly I was pulled into this story.

Every Halloween in this small town in the middle of nowhere, the October Boy is raised from the cornfields and makes his way towards town. For the previous five days, all the boys from sixteen to nineteen have been locked up, with no food, awaiting their release out into the Run, hunting the October Boy before he can make his way to the church. Whoever kills the October Boy gets a free ride out of town, and his family are showered with gifts, a new house, no bills, for that entire following year, until the next Halloween comes around and the cycle starts all over again. Part of why I loved this book is that there is no explanation as to why things are this way in this unnamed town. Why is the October Boy raised every year? Why can't the residents leave, or why are they not allowed to leave town? What will happen if the October Boy actually reaches the church? What are the consequences of this? None of these questions are truly answered, simply hinted at, yet you don't doubt the importance of any of the actions of the townsfolk, or the October Boy. You simply accept that this is the way things are, and this is how the story has to unfold, and you carry on with the story. And not having to answer these questions is, at least to me, what makes Partridge such an impressive, new-to-me author.

The characters are sympathetic; they could be anyone that you know in any small town. The small town could be like any other small town in America. Yet, there is something evil and unsettling just under the surface, something that these people have come to understand and respect in their own way. You as the reader accept these things too, however unpleasant that they may be, and will keep reading to find out more. As the secrets of this small town start to unravel, you will feel even more sympathy for them, and yet find revulsion at the same time. And you'll still want more. This is a quick read, but one that will leave you wishing there were more to the story, wanting to know what happens next, what the ultimate fate of the October Boy and this small town will be.

I will definitely be on the look out for more by Norman Partridge. Recommended.

So, you may be noticing a lack of a Fragment Friday posting from me this morning. That's because I didn't do one. Because I'm a slacker. However, I'm going to endeavor to prepare one tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. A Fragment Friday on a Saturday. It'll be like Saturday morning cartoons, only better!

From shadowy figures, strange mists and apparitions to angels and demons, Ghost Photos is a compendium of extraordinary phenomena caught on film. The author has spent over 10 years studying thousands of photographs and here he presents a collection of the most intriguing in seven enigmatic chapters. This book includes a gallery of explainable photographic effects that are commonly mistaken for pictures of ghosts.

Ghosts Caught on Film 2 is a collection of photographs and webcam grabs of ghosts and other apparitions that are not easily explained, along with explanations of where the photo came from and some history on who took the photo. Some of the photos in the book I've seen before, some are new to me. While this book probably is not for everyone, as I'm sure not everyone believes in the possibility of the supernatural, these types of books are a true guilty pleasure for me and I really enjoyed this one. The photos are clearly presented and the descriptions are concise without a lot of fluff. If you like books on ghosts, this would be for you.

Quitting her husband's house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon becomes the scandal of the London season.

Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London's vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead.

While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires -- and they're armed with pesto.

Gail Carriger, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways: La Diva Tarabotti. Lord Akeldama. Pesto. Formaldehyde. Templars. Biffy. Floote. Lord Maccon. "Parassault." Killer ladybugs. Vampires. Werewolves. Seriously, I could just go on and on and on about how I love Gail Carriger. And what do all of these tidbits (and more!) add up to? The latest, delicious volume in the Parasol Protectorate series.

Spoilers Ahead!

Blameless, the latest offering from Gail Carriger in her Parasol Protectorate series, finds our soulless heroine, Alexia Maccon (neé Tarabotti) is on the run. After the shocking revelations at the end of Changeless, she has been cast out by her brute of a werewolf husband, Lord Maccon, and has since discovered that for an as yet discovered reason, the vampires have set out to kill her, by any means possible (including killer mechanical ladybugs). Add to that the decision by the Queen to remove her status as muhjah of the Shadow Council, and Alexia is not having the best of times right now. Deciding that she needs some answers to her current condition, delicate as it is, Alexia travels abroad, in search of the Templars and some possible information regarding her, her father and her position as a preternatural.

Meanwhile back in London, there is intrigue and suspense galore as Lord Akeldama swarms from his home after a mysterious possession of his is stolen. How is this tied to the government? How do the werewolves play into all of this? And when will the formaldehyde run out?

And where exactly has Woolsey's Gamma run off to?

Gail Carriger has outdone herself with Blameless. I'll admit that I was a little concerned with the direction that Alexia and Co. were taking at the end of Changeless (I thought the situation seemed to come about a little too early), but I should never have doubted Ms. Carriger's ability, me the lowly reader that I am. She has taken a delicate state of affairs, and has made it into an integral, key plot point that helped move Blameless along with all the clever and witty pacing that I've come to love from her books. Having Alexia not attached to Lord Maccon was a refreshing treat. I think the characters are most interesting when they are apart, and Alexia is at odds with Connall. Of course, this situation won't always be that way, and of course they work well together, but I particularly loved the agitation felt throughout the book. The only other addition that I would have liked to see this time around? More Lord Akeldama. He has continually grown on me and may very well be my favorite character of the cast. He's just so over the top and divine.

The level of intrigue and the mystery behind the preternaturals was handled so well this time around. Ms. Carriger is developing a most engaging mythology and history for her characters, and I can't wait to find out more! There was just enough dangling plot lines left over to completely whet my appetite for more!

If you haven't had the pleasure of reading any of the Parasol Protectorate series, do yourself a favor, quit reading this humble blog and dash off to your nearest bookseller and acquire copies of all three books. Immediately. Posthaste. You won't be sorry. Gail Carriger may be one of the funniest authors that I've come across in awhile, and her books and characters are among the most charming and scintillating that I've read this year. My only regret now is that we've had the pleasure of three books released with the last year, that now we have to wait until the spring of next year to see what happens next!

Welcome to my latest Fragment Friday, a weekly meme hosted by James from Book Chic Club, where we vlog a small snippet from a current read. My excerpt this week is from Blameless by Gail Carriger. Blameless is available now from Orbit and comes highly recommended!

For those who view via a reader that strips out the video you can click here to see on YouTube or copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arJPV34WT6s

I hope you enjoyed this weeks fragment! Until next week, happy reading!